Term 2 update – thanks to our champions

We're getting a huge amount of online traffic – families interested enough to search for us and visit our website. Some ask for information or book a tour, others are happy to go straight on to your waitlist. January to March this year saw a really pleasing increase in online activity compared to last year.

Thank you all for your perseverance and commitment to keeping those waitlist families engaged until a space is available – even the busiest of our kindergartens can't sit back and do nothing with a healthy waitlist in the current environment. There are spaces available in so many ECE services around us that our waitlist families could enrol elsewhere at any time. We need to show them that it's worth the wait by keeping them up to date with what's happening at kindy, sending them our kindy newsletters, and making a dedicated time for them to visit regularly during their wait time – perhaps at Stay and Play. We've got some absolute champions out there right now who have built their waitlists up from virtually nothing, by promoting their kindergartens out in the community. A special mention to the teams at Kidsfirst Terrace, Beckenham, Bromley, Cromwell, Halswell, Hokitika, Linwood, Maniototo, Riccarton, Selwyn Street, Shirley, Sumner, and Wakatipu. All of these teams have been worried about their roll forecast at some point, and have been proactive in showcasing what they do to their communities, and getting those new families hooked. Ka mau te wehi!

I also want to acknowledge some of our teams who are Champions at using almost all of their maximum available child funded hours each week in March. It's no secret that the more hours we use, the more government funding we attract, and the more secure our future is. These kindergarten teams are really working hard to make sure they're filling up every space as soon as it comes available – and it shows!

Ngā mihi nui to:

Hawea – 99.85%

Alexandra – 99.43%

Lyttelton – 98.86%

Lincoln – 98.57%

Belfast – 98.37%

Cashmere – 98%

Burnham – 97.5%

Maniototo – 96.82%

Sumner – 95.11%

Edmonds Smith St – 95.56%

Karoro – 95.3%

Terrace – 94.32%

Lady May – 94.4%

Linwood – 94.47%

Mathers Rd – 94.24%

The Bays – 93.21%

Sunbeam – 93.64%

Templeton – 92.45%

Redwood – 92.39%

North New Brighton – 92.58%

Cotswold – 92.6%

Hei Hei – 97.78%

Hornby – 96.04%

Cromwell – 91.2%

Nuffield – 91.47%

Hoon Hay – 91.7%

Ilam – 91.56%

Trengrove – 90.92%

Riccarton – 90.69%

We are staffed at 100% of the available hours, so filling every possible space is the key to ensuring your kindergarten stays viable. I know that we have faced some obstacles since the pandemic, but thanks to all of these teams who are really upping their game. In fact, across the board in March there was a 2% increase across the network, and 46 of our 67 kindergartens showed an increase on the hours used. That's all we can ask for, and it really is appreciated.

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